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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28943157">Tether</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amlovelies/pseuds/Amlovelies'>Amlovelies</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Chargestep Prompt Pieces [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Established Relationship, F/F, Guilt, Introspection, Retribution Spoilers, Smoking, Suspicion, Therapy, painful memories</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:16:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,045</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28943157</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amlovelies/pseuds/Amlovelies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Julia and Cynthia grab coffee after Cynthia's therapy session</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Julia Ortega/Sidestep</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Chargestep Prompt Pieces [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2133453</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Tether</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>written as a prompt request on tumblr</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>            It’s another session full of half-truths and awkward silences. You can’t fault Dr. Finch for trying, she is trying, but you know it’s futile. You’re not even sure why you keep coming. Actually, that’s a lie. You’re here because of Ortega. She asked you to do it; she went out of her way to make it possible. It matters to her, because you matter to her. You shouldn’t. It would make things so much simpler if you didn’t, yet even knowing that you can’t bring yourself to disappoint her. You can’t bring yourself to show her who you are, to show her why she shouldn’t care, why she should hate you.</p><p>            She’s waiting for you as you exit Dr. Finch’s office. She’s waiting with her sly smiles, the ones that make you can’t seem to get enough of. She’s waiting with her wandering hands, the only ones that have touched you with any measure of kindness. She’s waiting for you to get better, to open up to her, to love her like she loves you.</p><p>            How disappointed she’ll be when she realizes her waiting was for nothing. Add it to the list of your crimes against her. It’s crueler than anything Retribution has done. Bruises can fade and heal, but she’ll never forgive you for letting her hope, for letting her believe.</p><p>            You grab coffee afterwards, and she gives you time before talking. This patient Ortega still takes some getting used to. Your memories of her are always of impulse and caprice. The mature and calm side of Ortega so at odds with how you once knew her to be, and it worries you. What else has changed? You once accused her of loving a ghost, but was that a projection.? This foolish infatuation of yours, how much of it is memory and how much reality?</p><p>            “Penny for your thoughts?” she asks breaking your train of thought.</p><p>            You take a drag of your cigarette to buy yourself time to answer. “Nothing important,” you answer with a shrug.</p><p>            Her brow furrows and her lips purse as she looks at you. It’s not the first time she’s looked at you like that way. At first you believed it was only pity and regret, but now you can see something else in her gaze. A shiver runs down your spine. As many times as you may call her an idiot, you know that Ortega isn’t a fool.</p><p>            Not for the first time you wish that you could see inside her mind. if only to silence the doubts that echo in the back of yours. She wouldn’t sit here with you if she suspected you were Retribution, would she? The old Ortega would never have the patience, but you can’t be sure with this new Ortega. What if all the caresses and sweet words are nothing more than a ruse?</p><p>            You shake your head trying to banish the thought. She’s too much of a hero for that. If Ortega suspected you were a danger, she would never let you walk away. When you look up at Ortega now all you see is concern shining bright in her brown eyes. You jump a little with surprise when she reaches out to take your hand, but you allow it. Like a tether you let it pull you back. Pull you away from the swirling maelstrom of your thoughts. Pull you back to this small café and the Los Diablos sunshine.</p><p>            “Where did you go?” She asks.</p><p>            “No where I want to be,” you admit as you lace your fingers with hers.</p><p>            She squeezes your hand and says, “you’re not there anymore, Cynthia. You’re safe with me. I will always do everything I can to keep you safe.”</p><p>            Her phone chirps and, with an apologetic glance, she releases your hand to pull it from her bag.</p><p>            “It hasn’t been an hour already, has it?” you wonder aloud.</p><p>            “You know what they say, time flies when you’re having fun.”</p><p>            “I wouldn’t go that far,” you respond with a roll of your eyes, “but things do move too quickly when I’m with you.”</p><p>            “What do you mean?”</p><p>            “You’re the only person I can’t read,” you say with a shrug. “Everyone else I see the moves a few steps ahead. It takes forever for things to happen. I’ve already seen it play out three times in their mind, but it’s different with you. I have no warning. And you can catch me off guard in a way that no one else can.”</p><p>            “No one else who isn’t epileptic,” she says with a chuckle.</p><p>            “Right,” you say with an exasperated huff. “What I mean to say is time passes slower without you. I feel like I’m constantly trying to catch up to you.” She doesn’t need to know how the years stretched out at the farm. How each hour fractured and multiplied and never seemed to end.</p><p>            “And here I was thinking I moved too slow. Ten odd years to get you in bed is hardly a breakneck speed.” Ortega says with a laugh pulling you out of your memories the way only she can. For the second time that afternoon pulling you back into the present.</p><p>            “Idiot,” you say your voice full of fondness.</p><p>            “I have to go back to headquarters; will you be okay?” she asks as she rises from her seat.</p><p>            “I’ll be fine. I’m just a little raw, but it’s nothing another smoke won’t cure.”        </p><p>            “If you say so,” her eyes search your face, and she seems satisfied by what she finds there, but she still lingers.</p><p>            You don’t have to read her mind to know she wants to kiss you goodbye,</p><p>            You shouldn’t. You shouldn’t let her kiss you in public. You shouldn’t let yourself indulge, but there are many things you shouldn’t be doing, and none of them feel as good as Ortega does.</p><p>            You nod your head, and she dips forward to press her lips against yours. It’s brief and almost chaste, but still enough to cause your heart to thrum in your ears.</p><p>            And then she is gone. The minutes pass with agonizing slowness as you light another cigarette. It’ll be enough to get you home where you can lose yourself in Eden. It’ll have to be enough.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>find me on tumblr @amlovelies<br/>thank you for taking the time to read<br/>comments make my day :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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